The War to End All Wars

When a band grows to become one of the most successful bands of their genre, their music will inevitably start to divide opinions. Fans of the band’s early days might not like the way the music evolves as the band rises to fame, while new listeners don’t appreciate the early albums. In power metal, the first group that springs to mind couldn’t easily be another one than Sabaton. Existing since 1999 and releasing full-length albums since 2005, the Swedish historians have become one of the leaders of the genre (although Sabaton themselves don’t like to label their music as ‘power metal’). With accessible songwriting, informative lyrics about war stories and impressive live shows, Sabaton seem to have hit the jackpot. Now they’re back with their tenth studio album, called The War to End All Wars.

The question to answer here isn’t necessarily whether Sabaton self-plagiarized - because they did and they always will - but rather how well they executed it this time around. For people who like to criticize them for being derivative and uninspiring it would be very easy to shoot this album down as well. We’ve all heard mid-paced song ideas like “Stormtroopers” and marching anthems like “Dreadnought” before, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good. Although indeed unoriginal, both songs kick off the album quite energetically and set the tone for the rest of the war journey. Annoyingly, that’s pretty much it, too. Slow, stomping songs like “Soldier of Heaven” and “Lady of the Dark” are what Sabaton seem to rely on on The War to End All Wars. Faster songs like “Hellfighters” (with a good riff!) and “The Unkillable Soldier” are rarer heard than on the predecessor, The Great War. Are the stomping anthems leftovers from said album? After all…

…The War to End All Wars begins where The Great War left off, because it was decided to write yet another album about World War I. Granted, I applaud their will to dive further into significant events that took place during that time, but it would’ve probably been better if they waited another two, three albums before they picked up the subject again. In too many ways, Sabaton’s new album feels like a rip-off of The Great War. Even the production didn’t noticeably improve, but one could argue that the guitars are a tad more prominent in the mix than on their previous efforts. A compliment to the guitar department has to be made anyway, because Tommy Johansson truly leaves an impression with numerous finger-licking guitar solos.

Even though Sabaton’s tenth full-length is nothing new under the sun (to be honest, who would have expected that anyway?) there’s still plenty of positive things to say. First of all, I appreciate the idea of having a narrative voice integrated in the album to serve as an informative interlude and outro. Sabaton used it on The Art of War, on the history version of The Great War and once again do it here with “Sarajevo” (the beginning of WWI) and “Versailles” (the official ending of WWI). Cleverly, the interlude is written in a minor key, indicating the war is upon us, and the outro is largely written in a major key, at its turn indicating WWI is over. It’s the details that make the album that needed bit better.

It's also the last two real songs on the album about which positive things can be said. “The Valley of Death” is the Sabaton song I could see both old and new fans enjoy, and “Christmas Truce” is a brave step towards something different. It pains me to say, however, that the song has a lot more impact when it’s played together with its excellent music video. So musically, “Christmas Truce” could and perhaps should have been more climactic, given that the lyrics definitely do leave a mark. Thanks to the internet and the many reactions to the song on YouTube, though, I suspect it might remain one of Sabaton’s more appreciated songs in a long time.

The War to End All Wars is not innovative, not particularly exciting, and exactly as Sabaton-y as one might expect. As someone who thinks Sabaton can’t ever reach the same level of brilliance they did on Carolus Rex without their former members Montelius, Mullback, Mÿhr and Sundén, I don’t think Sabaton’s latest will be blasting trough my speakers that often. The sympathetic Swedes do still make enjoyable and quite educational music and they do it very well in their own way, but The War to End All Wars simply doesn’t amaze me enough. I’m sure those who love Sabaton right now don’t care about that at all and will love this album to death anyway.

Highlights: “Stormtroopers”, “Hellfighters”, “The Valley of Death”